Various applicator tools are known for applying contact terminals onto electrical conductors. Certain hand-held tools are also known which are especially useful for applying particular types of electrical connectors to several conductors simultaneously. One such connector for terminating round or flat shielded cable is a shielded data link, or SDL, connector sold by AMP Incorporated; an applicator tool therefor is sold by the same company under the product identification AMP CERTI-LOK (trademark) Hand Crimping Tool 58097-1, with a crimping die assembly for use therewith under product identification 58092-1. Such crimping die assemblies comprise a base plate and an upper die, the upper die having a contact applicater and two strain relief crimpers, one of which crimps the connector onto the insulation of the plurality of conductors within the cable, and the other crimps the connector onto the cable shield and outer jacket to form the primary strain relief.
The contact applicator of the prior art crimping tool is an integral part of the upper die, consisting of a die surface extending in a plane which is axially normal to the conductors of the shielded cable which are arranged parallel in a plane at least at a forward end of the cable. This die surface is used to push a plurality of parallel contacts simultaneously deeper within contact-retaining guide slots of the connector to pierce insulation around associated conductors with which the contacts are parallel and establish an electrically conductive engagement therewith, with upper surfaces of the contacts accessible by corresponding contact surfaces of a mating connector receptacle of an electronic apparatus to which the SDL connector-terminated cable is to be connected. Such a shielded data link connector and contacts therefor are disclosed, for example, in AMP Application Specification No. 114-2086 incorporated herein by reference, and also U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,636.
It is known that during such application crimping, the contacts are pushed by the contact-engaging die surface a fixed depth into the conductor insulation but upon retraction of the die surface are pushed back by the insulation a slight distance, believed to result mostly from the resilience or the durometer of the insulation. It is also known that differences in the slight distance which the contacts are pushed back can adversely affect the performance of the connector when it is connected to a mating receptacle by virtue of the contacts being engaged by mating contact surfaces of the mating receptacle; for this reason, in such an applied SDL connector strict tolerance limits are set for the contact height which is the height of the upper contact surface with respect to the bottom surface of the connector.
Because the durometer of the conductor insulation may change, or dimensions of the conductor insulation may change even within a single manufactured length of such rounded or flat shielded cable, it is highly desirable for the personnel applying the SDL connector to a preselected length of such cable to be able to make slight but important corresponding on-line adjustments in the height of the contact-engaging die surface within a crimping die assembly in a handtool without replacing the die assembly with another assembly having a slightly different fixed contact-engaging die surface height.
It is also desirable to have a crimping die assembly with such an operator-adjustable height of contact-engaging die surface, for use with semiautomatic application apparatus, in addition to hand-held manually-operated applicator tools, and also pneumatic bench applicator machines.